Redeeming the Past

Paul says, in Romans 8:28, that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  Many of us can say this verse by heart.  We know it in our heads but the question is, “do we believe it in our hearts?”  As we look around at the world today, at our lives, and the lives of those we have relationships with, we sometimes ask, “really God, all things work together for good?”  When all around is war, murder, violence, sexism, racism, abortion, euthanasia, genocide, suicide, hunger…do you believe that all things work together for good? 

The story of Moses found in Exodus 1-2 challenges the notion that God is passive and uninvolved in the affairs of men.  As the drama unfolds in the pages of Scripture, God’s sovereignty and his providential work in the redemption of mankind becomes a clear theme as a continuation of the foundation laid in Genesis.  God is good!

Exodus begins with the Israelites toiling under the oppressive hand of the evil Egyptian Pharaoh.   Joseph and his generation were dead and the children of Israel had multiplied to such a number that the new Pharaoh felt threatened that they might join his enemies and defeat him.  So he devised and executed a plan of oppression.  He ruthlessly made them work as slaves under harsh taskmasters and afflicted them with heavy burdens.  He ordered the Hebrew midwives to murder every son born to the Hebrew women and when the Hebrew midwives disobeyed for fear of God, Pharaoh ordered all baby boys to be thrown to the crocodiles of the Nile River.  Thousands were killed!  Despite Pharaoh’s evil intensions and cruel treatment, God continued to bless the Israelites.  As slaves, they multiplied--Under order to abort baby boys, they continued to multiply and grow strong--As soldiers took babies by force and threw them into the Nile, a deliverer was born. 

In the midst of all this turmoil, there was a certain baby boy who was born to the wife of a Levite woman.  She hid him for three months and when she could hide him no more she made a basket (an ark), put pitch and bitumen on it (like Noah), and placed in the water of the Nile River.  (It’s almost like God is giving us this story to teach us something bigger here.J)  God then providentially brings Pharaoh’s daughter to the bank of the river who finds the baby and decides to keep him as her own son, have his own mother nurse him, and name him Moses which means taken out of the water.

The story of the birth of Moses, not unlike the story of Noah, is a story about Jesus.  Moses is a shadow of a deliverer who was yet to come.  Like Noah, Moses was chosen by God to deliver his people.  Like Noah, Moses faced watery judgment and lived.  Like Noah and Moses, Jesus was chosen by God to endure suffering at the hands of evil men and live.

The question is, “so what?”  What does this old story have to do with us?  How does this old story relate to all things working together for good?  Well…like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, all those who love God and have been called by Him can live by faith knowing that all things work together for good.  This is not just any old story but it’s our story.  God’s chosen people in every age have endured suffering as a means to their sanctification and we are no different.

Christians of old had to wrestle with the same questions that we wrestle with.  Surely, the Israelites questioned whether God was working all things for good while toiling in Egypt and they must have wondered where God was when their babies were being murdered by the thousands at the hand of Pharaoh.  As the drama unfolds we can see clearly what God was up to.  He was purifying a people for himself.  He was and is sovereignly working in the affairs of men to fulfill a promise that he made to Adam and Eve--The promise of one that would defeat sin and Satan forever thereby delivering His people from their sin once and for all.

As we face the sins of our past and make war against sin in the present and as we face suffering in this life, we can rest in the fact that God is in control.  He is working all things together for our good.  Although we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death He has promised to be their with us, to guide us, protect us, comfort us, provide for us, and assure us that greener pastures lie ahead.  This does not mean that we will not face hardship in this life.  It doesn’t mean that we will always understand why God has chosen to do things the way that he has chosen. But, it does mean, like Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and all the saints of years gone by that our momentary sufferings in this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  

What ever you have done and whatever has been done to you is for your good.  God is good.  He is Sovereign.  He is providentially working in your life to draw you closer to Him and conform you into His image.  Redeem the past.  Accept what God has done and is doing as good and use it for good in the life of others.

The Gospel of Exodus…to be continued…

For more on suffering, read Romans 8 in its entirety.  

The Tears of God

The book of Genesis is the seedpod or the beginning of all things.  After six days, the triune God pronounces all of his creation including mankind, very good.  What once was formless and void, an uninhabited chaotic ball of water, is now teaming with order and beauty and life.  The man that God created (Adam) is the king of the earth.  He lives in perfect harmony with God, his wife (Eve), and nature.  But this perfect world was short lived.  Man chose to rebel against God by eating from the one tree of the garden that God forbid him to eat from.  Adam’s fatal choice (the fall) plunged the human race into total depravity.  God exercised his justice along with his grace by punishing Adam for his disobedience while letting him live outside the garden in hopes that the promised seed of the woman would soon redeem them from there sinful condition.

In Genesis chapter 6, we have pictured for us what life was like east of Eden.  Man was fruitful and multiplied upon the earth but with the multiplication came multiplied sin.  The condition of mankind was so corrupt that God looked upon the hearts of the people that he created and saw that they were completely wicked and that the very intentions of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it GRIEVED him in his heart.  So the Lord once again turned the earth back into a chaotic ball of watery judgment. 

“It grieved him in his heart,” is not a throw away line.  As many times as we have read the story of Noah and the great flood, how many times have we stopped to think about these most important words?  Six words that give us a window into the heart of our God.  A God who is not first, creator, but who is first, Father.  A loving Father who is grieved to his very core that the world that he created has fallen so far from glory.  Our God cries!  He cries for mankind, who was created in his image to live in perfect harmony with him, but who has fallen into the depths of depravity and lost his first love. 

The awful and wonderful thing about God’s grief is that it is our salvation.  The whole story of Noah and the ark is about Jesus.  It is a foreshadowing of the one who would come (the seed of the woman) and save mankind from the final judgment (by fire).  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.  God, our Father, sent his Son into this world to pay the penalty for our sin.  He lived a perfect life, he died on the cross and shed his blood, and he rose again defeating death and sin.  Only a relational God who is intimately involved in the lives of his children would do such a thing.  His grief is motivated by his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  

While the story of Noah and the ark is a real event in history that had very real affects on all of creation, we must not overlook the redemptive note that cries out from the pages of Scripture.  Just like Noah, Jesus was chosen by God to save mankind.  Just like Noah, Jesus went through the waters God’s wrath.  Just like Noah, Jesus endured the wrath and lived.  But unlike Noah, Jesus endured the wrath and emerged victoriously sinless.  Jesus died once, the righteous for the unrighteous, to appease the wrath of God so that we would not have to experience the fiery judgment to come.  That’s Good News!

Although thousands of years separate us from our great ancestor, Noah, and from our earthly elder brother, Jesus Christ, the world that we live in is not so different  (sinful, violent, and awaiting judgment).  Like Noah and Jesus, Christians are God’s ambassadors warning the world of the judgment to come and spreading the good news of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  The question is, “is your heart GRIEVED for the lost and dying peoples of the world who face impending doom or are you indifferent?”  Beloved, God is love so let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  If you’ve been born of God then the love of God should lead you to grieve for the lost. But like Noah, who by faith built an ark and warned the people of his day of coming judgment, we must not be paralyzed by grief but persevere in faith and good works for the glory of God.